Crystal Castles follow up festival slots with autumn 2012 UK tour

Canadian duo line up new album and handful of November dates, tickets on sale from 9am Friday 31st August

Crystal Castles

Ethan Kath and Alice Glass originally hooked up almost a decade ago while Glass was a teenager in a local Toronto punk band called, charmingly, Fetus Fatale. Seemingly worlds apart from what her eventual recording project turned out to be (she, then-15 and spiky, he then-21 and an experimental electronic musician), Glass and Kath have become quite a catch for fans of lo-fi electronica and ear-shattering glitch - perhaps punk and Crystal Castles aren't so far apart after all.

After a few years of independently-released EPs and singles, including the underground smash 'Crimewave', the pair colluded for a full-length album, 2008's 'Crystal Castles'. Whilst the title is far from imaginative, the music certainly isn't and the duo soon became a must-see in the so-called 'hip' parts of London. And where there are 'hipsters', there are scouts from major-labels with their tongues hanging out, with Fiction (home to The Maccabees, Elbow and for 20 years, The Cure) the lucky imprint with the pen poised and the deal sealed.

Album number two, also entitled 'Crystal Castles', also sold well, especially after Robert Smith from the aforementioned Fiction legends The Cure graced the single 'Not in Love' with his distinctive vocals. But now it's on to the next project - a tour in support of album number three (as yet untitled, but let me suggest 'Crystal Castles III').

The autumnal jaunt will be their first sole headlining tour since 2010, their first tour of sorts since their NME Awards Tour shows in early 2011 and their first live appearances since Reading and Leeds during the recent August Bank Holiday weekend. If you were there, you'll know what to expect - energy, pounding sharp beats, a wall of synths and more energy. Less rain, too.

The tour will kick off in Birmingham on 22nd November, followed by Norwich, Brixton, Leeds and finally, for now, Manchester on the 28th. We will have tickets available from 9am on Friday 31st August, priced at £16 (£17.50 for London), all expected to sell very quickly indeed.

If you need new Crystal Castles tunes, head to www.soundcloud.com/crystal-castles/tracks for free downloads of 'Plague' and 'Baptism' (Indyans edit). If the former doesn't unnerve you just a tad, you need help.